(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a measuring system, and more specifically, to a system for detecting and measuring the volume concentration and effective conductivity of airborne conductive particles such as (typically ¼ inch-long) mm-wave carbon-fiber absorptive chaff elements.
(2) Description of the Prior Art
Prior art techniques for detecting and/or classifying airborne absorptive chaff particles typically involve measuring scattered light from the particles, passing particles through a grid and measuring possible electrical contact between particles and grid elements or collecting particles on a filter for a specified time and then weighing the filter to determine the mass of the collected material. These techniques are cumbersome to apply however, and also do not quantitatively measure the effective conductivity of the particles. Effective electrical conductivity of particles may be estimated by examining particles under a microscope and physically performing electrical measurements, but these techniques are also cumbersome, very time consuming and labor intensive to apply. It is desired to provide a system for detecting and/or classifying airborne absorptive chaff particles without suffering the prior drawbacks of weighing the filter to determine the mass of the collected airborne particles without performing any microscope analysis of the collected particles, while at the same time, providing for a measurement of effective conductivity of the particles.